It Starts

It's not even February and I've already got a touch of the fever. Spring Fever that is. I like winter, don't get me wrong. I like the coziness of it, the long evenings, cups of tea, crackling fires in the fire place, an excuse to stay inside and get winter projects done like knitting and spinning, where in summer's tempting sunshine, I'd feel guilty staying indoors.

But every year somewhere between January and February, I start to yearn for something green, for new life. This year, I am trying to exercise a little will power and am not going to start an entire garden's worth of seeds too early, only to find the poor things straining at every window, leggy and pale and finally shriveling up by March 1st.

What happens is, I get looking through all those seed catalogs, and seed packets at the nursery, and it's all too tempting. I start out with good intentions, "I'll just get a couple herbs, for the window sill." Then I discover a new heirloom carrot, "Well, it won't hurt to plant just one heirloom carrot." Oooh, and there's a spring lettuce mix. "Well, I've already got the peat pots." Oooh and look at the purple tomatoes, and the birdhouse gourds, and the watermelons and before I know it, I have giant pumpkin plants growing in the living room.

This year I did pretty good. I only got a couple of herbs that we use often. Cilantro and sweet basil, a lettuce mix, and a sweet pea designed to be grown in pots. Not too bad right? It was tough though.